A/N: Before you read this chapter, you need to read the previous two chapters, because this is a continuation of them. If you don't want to, just know that 'Confusion' saw Tyron stepping up his game and using XANA as a pawn to trap the Lyokowarriors, and 'The Stowaway' had Tyron making another move by placing something on Lyoko, as well as Ulrich telling his father off.
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko or CL: Evolution in any way, shape, or form.
Beta read by FP7ETDP43
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
"A man named Graven turns up at the school to scout out bright students for a high-ranking science university in Switzerland, but beneath his mask is a sinister secret."
A World Without Danger
Code Lyoko: Evolution Rewrite
Season 5, Episode 18: Masquerade
One regular Wednesday afternoon, a black van pulled up and parked in front of the school gates of Kadic. A man—sandy blonde hair, hazel eyes, in his late forties—stepped out, dressed in his formal best. He surveyed his surroundings as he took off his sunglasses, before heading towards the administrative building.
Mr. Delmas stepped outside of his office the moment Mrs. Weber alerted him to their visitor's presence.
"Ah, you must be the recruiter that spoke to me on the phone Monday morning," he greeted. "We've been expecting you. All the papers have been received. Come in."
The stranger responded with a tight smile and accepted the headmaster's invitation to enter his office, stepping inside...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
A few minutes later, Jim entered the courtyard, looking for someone. After a beat, he found his target and called out to them, "Hey! Belpois!"
Said student was by the vending machines, chatting away with Aelita. Jérémie glanced around to catch whoever called out his name, catching the moment Jim approached him.
"Come on, the headmaster wants to see you."
Jérémie was curious, "Oh? What for?"
"You're one lucky kid," Jim explained, having been sent to fetch him and knowing why. "The general director of a big science school in Switzerland wants to meet you."
Left with little choice but to go with Jim, Jérémie nodded at Aelita. She nodded back, knowing that he wanted her to update the others on his whereabouts and that he was entrusting her with any XANA attacks in his place.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jim accompanied Jérémie to the door of Mr. Delmas's office, just as the headmaster himself came out.
"Ah, Belpois!" Mr. Delmas exclaimed. "Congratulations! You've been spotted, my boy. I gave this direction a list of all Kadic students with a grade point average of 19 or higher. Since you have the highest, he's found you the most promising and thus has decided to start with you."
Jérémie was puzzled, not understanding much. Mr. Delmas just left with Jim without further explanation, only a simple, "Good luck."
A stranger's voice then echoes from within the office, "Enter, my boy..."
With a little apprehension, the young genius entered.
There was a man—sandy blonde hair, hazel eyes, in his late forties—in the middle of the room, hands on his hips as he scrutinized the boy with an incisive gaze.
Jérémie closed the door behind him, and the man pulled out a chair from in front of the desk. He tapped the back, inviting the boy to sit down. The boy obeyed, noting how the man's attitude was more reminiscent of a police interrogation than a polite conversation.
The man also sat down, "My name is Charles Graven. Your headmaster tells me that you're the best student in this school. A little genius, according to your grade point average. You even skipped a grade in primary school. Is that true?"
Jérémie responded with a small, embarrassed smile. He didn't know what to say. While smart, most of his knowledge came from experience.
Graven watched his reaction before sliding a leaflet he had in front of him over to the boy. He turned the leaflet so that it was facing the right way for Jérémie, inviting him to browse through it. Jérémie took it.
On luxurious glossy paper, it presented a prestigious school, illustrated by a logo in the shape of an atom. Spacious classrooms, chemistry and physics laboratories, high-tech equipment—it looked like the dream of any apprentice scientist! Jérémie would be lying if he said he wasn't the least bit excited at the idea.
"It's the best school in Europe," Graven explained. "We have the best labs, the best equipment...and the best students."
Jérémie raised his head from the leaflet. Graven was thinking about him; it was obvious. The boy couldn't help but smile, flattered. This was the type of opportunity that his parents would jump at the chance to accept on his behalf.
"I'm going to give you a test," Graven continued. "If you impress me, I'll put you on the list of future students at my school."
Graven took the brochure back, and this time slid towards him a small questionnaire of about ten pages—the test. Interested, Jérémie flicked through it to see what it was about.
He suddenly paused when he caught sight of it.
His surprise didn't go unnoticed. Graven took the questionnaire from the page where Jérémie stopped, and looked at what had caught Jérémie's attention.
"Quantum physics, yes," he confirmed. "Do you know about it?"
Jérémie's expression changed, immediately wary. He thought carefully before he replied, "Well...I have heard about it in a science fiction book." Most of the questions on this test concerned quantum physics, he'd noticed. Something was up. This guy was definitely not who he seemed. Pretending to be at ease, he continued, "Oh yeah, I love science fiction. It's one of my guilty pleasures."
A lie. He disliked science fiction due to all the inaccuracies.
Graven remained serious and stoic, "I'm talking about the real deal. Quantum physics. Do you know anything about it, yes or no?"
Jérémie hesitated. Every instinct of his was screaming that this was a trap.
"Don't hide anything from me, Mr. Belpois. This is your professional career that's in question."
More like the secrecy and safety of Lyoko, the supercomputer, and his friends. Operating the supercomputer at full capacity required extensive knowledge of quantum physics. Everything Jérémie knew of the subject came from Franz Hopper's notes and private messages.
To hell with his professional career. "No, I'm sorry, sir," Jérémie lowered his head, feigning shame. "I don't know anything about it."
Graven sighed disappointedly, as his cell phone started to ring. He looked to see who it was, and exited the room to answer it, taking great care to close the door behind him.
Instinctively, Jérémie jumped out of his chair to listen at the door. He didn't hear anything, though; Graven was speaking too quietly. The boy quickly rummaged through his bag and took out a small homemade amplifier (an earpiece, plus a wire, and a small steel dish). He placed the dish on the door, turned on his amplifier, and put on the earpiece. Then, he heard Graven's voice.
"...I'm questioning one of them right now... No, another bad choice. He knows nothing about quantum physics, or so he says. Hmm... mm-hmm... Okay. Tell Tyron that I'm going through with the test anyway."
Jérémie's eyes promptly opened wide with shock. Graven was an agent sent by Tyron?!
But that wasn't all. "And let me know as soon as the beacon offers a better signal."
Jérémie paled. So that's what was going on. Graven's test was nothing but a pretext to identify young kids with abnormally good knowledge of quantum physics, and therefore likely to be the virtual avatars that constantly visited the Cortex. Additionally, Graven was here because Tyron somehow managed to trace the supercomputer's location.
Thinking quickly, Jérémie removed his earpiece and replaced it with his cellphone. He moved away from the door as the phone rang. He had to hurry; he would still hear Graven talking quietly on the other side of the door.
Aelita took a tad too long answering, though it was probably a result of his anxiety. "Yes, Jérémie?"
He spoke quietly, his eyes fixed on the office door, "Aelita, listen carefully, I don't have much time. That director who wanted to see me is an agent sent by Tyron."
"What?!" she sounded very worried, and really scared. "Do you need help?!"
"I'm fine," he reassured her. For now, at least. "They haven't spotted us yet, but they are searching. Just leave it to me. But listen, he talked about a beacon."
"A beacon?"
"It must be somewhere on Lyoko," Jérémie realized. "If it's the supercomputer he's tracking, then a virtual beacon is the only way to trace it back to us."
"Okay, we'll track it down. Good luck."
"You too." He suddenly heard a noise on the other side of the door. "I have to go now!" He hung up quickly, and ran back to his seat, haphazardly throwing his cellphone and amplifier back into his back.
Graven re-entered the room and found Jérémie in his seat, exactly where he left him. The boy was sitting there, as if nothing had happened, looking falsely disengaged with a stupid smile on his face.
"Are you ready for the test?" Graven asked, as he sat back down in the headmaster's chair.
Jérémie blinked, acting surprised, "You're still going to test me? I told you that I don't know anything about quantum physics except for how it's depicted in science fiction."
Graven only smiled, "I'll be the judge of that, Mr. Belpois."
Jérémie impressively managed to keep up his poker face, despite Graven's smile creeping him out.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Meanwhile, Aelita sent a group text to the others, reading: 'SOS! Meet at manhole cover ASAP'. Once they did, she ushered them down into the passage below. Now that they were now in a truly private place, she told them what all Jérémie had just told her. The others' faces were just as pale and visibly panicking, just as Jérémie was.
"So this guy is Tyron's minion?" Odd summed it all up.
Aelita nodded.
"Are you sure we should leave Jérémie alone with him?" William asked, concerned for their friend. "Maybe one of us should stay here, just in case."
"Jérémie will throw him off our trail, and trust me, it's something only he can pull off," Aelita reassured them all. "Our main focus is this beacon he overheard the man mention."
"But everything on Lyoko is virtual," Yumi reminded her.
"Even virtual, a beacon can reveal the coordinates of the supercomputer," the pink-ette replied. "And knowing Tyron, we have to assume that it will be supremely accurate, down to where the earpiece is kept when not in use."
Ulrich suddenly had a revelation, "The Ninja!"
The others turned to him, as Aelita asked, "What?"
"The Ninja who followed us on Lyoko," Ulrich explained. "It had to have been them. They may have left the beacon somewhere before we devirtualized them."
"We have to retrace their entire journey," Aelita informed them. "We have to find this beacon before it gives Tyron the coordinates of the supercomputer."
Ulrich promptly grabbed his skateboard, while Yumi, Odd, and William already had theirs. Once Aelita boarded her scooter, the quintet took off toward the factory.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
William, Ulrich, and Odd all virtualized directly into the Sector Five Arena. Given how that's where the Ninja's journey on Lyoko started, it only made sense to go there first. Yumi landed soon after, while Aelita stayed at the controls.
The four boarded the elevator, and headed up towards the Skid Garage, their starting point.
"So do we know what this thing looks like?" Odd asked.
Aelita replied, "No."
"I mean, is it small? Big? Twisted? Does it flash?" Odd wondered.
"I don't know, Odd," Aelita admitted.
Odd sighed, "Great! Maybe it's invisible? Who knows?" It would be like looking for a pixel in the Digital Sea!
The other three affectionately rolled their eyes, as Aelita told him, "I appreciate you trying to be thorough, Odd, but I know as much as you do."
Which was next to nothing.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie waited patiently, holding the same pen he used to fill out the test that Graven was now looking over. The man sighed, dismayed, as he turned the pages and crossed out large passages with a red pen. Once done, he whistled, and Jim entered.
"I'm done with him. He's not up to par. He can go," Graven said, and those words were music to Jérémie's ears.
It took all of Jérémie's willpower to refrain from giving off a smug smile—he succeeded in purposefully flunking like he did with that IQ test—but he managed to keep up his poker face.
Graven threw the boy's test in the trash, and Jérémie made a move to stand up until he remembered the pen still in his hand. But Graven shook his head, "Keep it. I have plenty."
The young genius shrugged and stood up, placing the pen in his bag.
Meanwhile, the man massaged his eyebrows, tired, "You can send me the next one right away." He read from a piece of paper in front of him, "Gauthier, Laura, is that correct?"
Jim nodded before accompanying Jérémie out of the office. While the boy heard Laura's name, he didn't think anything of it. She wasn't part of the group, and if she did somehow retain memories of her two visits to the factory through her dreams, like William did, she hadn't said anything about it.
On their way out of the administrative building, Jim commented, "I'm sorry you failed, Belpois."
Jérémie played along, pretending to be sad as he shrugged, "It's alright. The test had questions on a subject that, for once, I had no knowledge of. I guess it's time to study up on it, right?"
They exited the building as Jim patted him on the back in encouragement, before asking, "Do you know where Miss Gauthier is?"
Jérémie shrugged, genuinely not knowing. While he would have liked to stay to ensure that she really didn't remember her two times at the controls in his place, he knew that the beacon took precedence. So while Jim left in one direction, Jérémie waited until the man wasn't looking before sprinting towards the park.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Meanwhile, the virtualized quartet were searching the Skid itself and the garage high and low. They were inspecting every corner and crevice where something could hide, only to come up with nothing so far.
Odd used his claws to search underneath the transporter platform. This was starting to bother him. "Aelita should be checking here..." he muttered.
Yumi heard him. "We don't need her. The Ninja couldn't fly. It must have left the beacon somewhere easily accessible. Think about it."
He shrugged her off, "Maybe the thing had little wings or something. There's nothing here, Princess."
"We have to retrace our steps," Aelita cut in. "The Ninja wouldn't have placed it on the Skid. Our ship was created specifically to traverse the Digital Sea, so Tyron would want the beacon to stay on Lyoko."
"Right," William sighed. "You and Odd were both devirtualized here. Then I fought the Ninja. But like Odd said, there's nothing here in the Garage. We searched everywhere."
"The fight didn't end here," Ulrich reminded the others. "Remember? The Ninja tried to reach the Core of Lyoko. They took the elevator, then the footbridge that leads to the Arena. They may have placed the beacon somewhere there."
"Then let's go back down," Yumi said, leading the guys back to the elevator.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie had almost reached the manhole cover when the realization hit him. He halted dead in his tracks.
Memories of his trip to the Cortex, the one that had him stay overnight, returned to his mind. The Ninjas got a good look at his face many times, and Tyron's paranoia was correct in that the boy was indeed still lingering around, camping next to the interface.
Tyron had also been stepping up his game lately, so there was no way that he didn't already know.
The young genius started to become paranoid himself. He glanced around the treeline for any eyes that may have been on him as he pulled out the pen—the one that Graven had told him to keep. He screwed the cap open and found exactly what he was afraid of, and what he was glad to catch before it was too late.
A tracking device...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The virtualized quartet had yet to find the tracer, but they had extended their search to the walkway from the Arena to the elevator. Yumi and Odd were on their knees, inspecting the platform.
"There's nothing here either," Yumi commented. "But there aren't that many places it could be hiding."
Odd was staring off into space. "What if the Ninja just threw the thing?" he wondered, making a gesture of throwing something. He turned to the others, "They may as well have done it. Maybe it's a device programmed with a little parachute!"
From a distance, on the walkway, William became annoyed by Odd's light tone, "Odd, we appreciate you trying to think outside the box, but please use your head. I would have seen them throw it. I was in the middle of fighting them; they didn't have the time."
Ulrich was deep in thought, "Except that's where you got devirtualized."
William shuddered at the bad memory. That Ninja piece of dirt took him out before Ulrich even grazed their skin.
"Then, I arrived," the samurai continued. "They stepped back, and..." He moved a little further on the walkway, leaned into the void, and fumbled with his hand on the protrusion on the wall, "...and that's where I got them." His face suddenly lit up, "I found it!"
The other three promptly joined him and leaned under the bridge. Sure enough, there it was.
Stuck to the wall, was a small, round device with a diode. It was flashing every two seconds.
Worried, Odd spoke up, "Uh, Aelita? We found the Ninja's stupid thing. What do we do now?"
"Stand by."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jim let Laura into Delmas' office, missing how her eyes hardened in recognition. Graven welcomed her the same way he previously welcomed Jérémie, "Come in, close the door, and sit down, Miss Gauthier. The headmaster tells me you're a very good student."
Laura closed the door, and Jim couldn't hear anything anymore. Inside the room, the standard greeting was just for Jim's benefit. The moment that door was closed, the atmosphere in the room changed.
"Do you remember your homework?" Graven asked her, taking out a blank version of the same test that he had Jérémie take moments earlier.
The girl wordlessly nodded. She knew this guy. He worked for her father, and he was just as hard on her as her father was. She never knew what to say around any of her father's employees.
Graven's smile in response was tight, "Well, it's time for the final exam."
Her stomach plummeted to the floor in fear as she flipped through the test. She didn't know the answer to any of these questions...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie had made up his mind. In order to know for sure, he had to confront Graven, but the man was probably here to capture him. In any case, he had to keep the man away from the factory. So he had to stay here, in the park.
He sat down on a bench just as his phone rang. He quickly picked up, "Yes, Aelita?"
"We found the tracer, Jérémie," his girlfriend told him, "but it looks complicated. We'll need your help getting rid of it. Are you out?" He was relieved; his friends had confirmed the beacon's existence, at least.
"Of the test, yes, but not in the clear," he solemnly told her. "I have to help remotely. Describe the thing to me."
"Okay. Well, I've isolated the beacon's signal, and it's actually pretty weak. At the moment, Tyron can only obtain a 200 kilometer radius."
He was reassured by this, "Good. So he doesn't know exactly where we are. That's why he's looking for us. He must have sent agents to all the middle and high schools in the region."
"However, the signal fluctuates constantly," Aelita sounded worried.
"What?"
"The signal is evolving," she explained, "even getting more refined. In a matter of days, the beacon will be able to send our exact position to Tyron." And that was the opposite of what they wanted. The pink-ette was stunned, "Why didn't he just wait until then?"
"Because he's likely afraid of us," Jérémie reminded her. "Once launched, our anti-XANA program will fry his supercomputer into obsoletion. Now, I managed to trick the agent into thinking that I probably wasn't who Tyron was looking for, but he placed a tracking device on me, which means that he's still suspicious of me. I have to stay here at Kadic to keep him away from you guys. At least until you guys destroy the tracer and are able to launch a Return to the Past."
She was wary of his choice, "I don't like the idea of you being alone at Kadic, where XANA and Tyron both could easily reach you."
He appreciated her concern, "I'll be fine. You will know when XANA launches an attack, and all I have to do is keep the agent off my trail until the Return is launched."
She sighed, "Okay. I'll leave it to you. Good luck."
"You too," he replied, before hanging up.
He had to hang on. He trusted his friends with his life, because he knew they wouldn't let him down, but this was still a tense situation. He leaned back against the bench and tried his best to sigh away his anxiety, to no avail.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita didn't actually want Jérémie to hang up in a situation like this, but she understood why he had to. He had his own job, and she had hers. She focused her attention back on it, addressing the others, who had been waiting patiently for her orders until now.
"I just called Jérémie," she relayed, "and he's stuck at Kadic due to circumstances, so we'll have to do without him. But he says that Tyron hasn't spotted us yet, and if we destroy the beacon, then he'll be left with his agents scattered in a radius of 200 square kilometers."
"Cool!" Odd exclaimed. "So we can destroy this thing now?"
"Yep. Go nuts, Odd."
Delighted, Odd made the others move back with a gesture, aimed at the beacon with one fist, with his other claw keeping him stable when upside down. He fired a brief cluster of Laser Arrows...
But a terrible noise of saturation resounded. The intensity of light dropped considerably and the virtual envelope of the quartet crackled.
The light also noticeably dimmed. The screens and computer turned off one after another, leaving Aelita's panicked face in the dark...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
At the park, Jérémie became worried when he saw his transwatch suddenly bug up badly.
It had never done that before...
What had happened? Were the others okay? Was it a sign that Tyron had upgraded his beacon or something?
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
After a moment of silence, during which Aelita could only hear her breathing, the machines started up again, the lights came back on, and the screens returned to life.
On Lyoko, it was the same, and the virtual envelope of the four regained consistency. Everything was back to normal. The teens all looked at each other, terrified by what just happened.
"Aelita?" Yumi asked, just now noticing Ulrich's hand on her elbow.
Jérémie called his girlfriend back. The others could hear his concerned voice over the comm system, "What just happened? My transwatch suddenly bugged and is now back to normal!"
"No one touch or do anything," Aelita warned. The four all obeyed, with Odd leaning far away from the beacon as he could while still keeping an eye on it. "The beacon is booby-trapped."
"We understood that," Odd told her. "Thanks."
"An electromagnetic impulse is embedded in it," the pink-ette explained. "It's acting as a security system, capable of causing severe damage to the supercomputer as well as Lyoko."
"Cool..." Odd muttered.
"No, not cool at all!" Aelita revealed. "If the system is activated, you'll be thrown into the Digital Void with no way back! That's what almost happened to all of you!"
The group was dead silent as they glanced at each other, worried.
"And we can't simply disable it?" Ulrich asked.
It was Jérémie who replied, "Too risky." None of them could deny that; he was right. One wrong move would kill them.
"What do we do then?" Yumi asked. "We can't let Tyron spot us!"
There was another tense silence, though short.
"What if we simply took the beacon and threw it into the Digital Sea?" Odd suggested.
"On that note, what if we returned it back to its sender?" William added. "Back to the Cortex?"
Ulrich's face lit up, "Yeah! Excellent idea!" Yumi nodded in agreement.
"Except that the beacon is connected to a motion detector," Aelita warned them. "That's why it reacted when Odd shot at it. Any movement too sudden, and it activates."
"Then we'll be careful," Odd told her. "If the thing resisted one of my Arrows, then we should be able to move it!"
"That's a good idea, actually," Jérémie cut in, still on the phone. "If we bring the beacon back to the Cortex, it will indicate its own position, which will make it bug up. But it's still risky; I hope you guys are aware of that."
"Of course we are, Einstein," Odd said, raising a finger in the air. "I'll go."
"Not alone, you're not," Ulrich told him, grabbing his hand and putting it back down. "I'm going with you."
"Me too!" Yumi exclaimed. She placed her hand over theirs.
William's hand joined theirs in the pile, "So am I. All for one and one for all."
Moved by the union within their group, Aelita relented, "Okay. Go ahead and remove it. It's only held by an electromagnetic system. Gently, though."
Odd slowly and cautiously moved back towards the beacon, using his claws to climb back down to where the beacon was. The other three watched him with apprehension as he pulled the beacon off. He looked around and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that everything was calm.
Ulrich held out his hands. "I'll take it."
"Why you?" William asked.
"I'm the one who let the Ninja trap us," the samurai explained.
William and Yumi looked at each other, before nodding their approval. Odd delicately passed the beacon to Ulrich, before climbing back up. With that, the four headed towards the elevator.
"We're heading back up to the Skid, Aelita," Yumi relayed, Ulrich holding the beacon firmly.
"Copy that." As the lift went back up to the Skid Garage, she addressed her boyfriend, who hadn't hung up yet, "Any further input, Jérémie?"
"Just one thing. Don't let Odd drive."
"Hey!"
"No daredevil stunts," Jérémie was firm. "You hear me? I have to go now. Be careful, guys, and good luck."
"You too," Aelita said, before he hung up again.
The quartet exchanged concerned glances as the elevator arrived at the Skid hangar for the second time that day. Ulrich went over to the teleporter pad, and the others quickly followed him.
Odd listened to Jérémie and let Yumi claim the center spot. Meanwhile, Ulrich continued to hold the beacon in his hands as steadily as he could.
"We're ready, Aelita," the geisha said.
"I read you. Energize."
Four beams of light engulfed the teens, transporting all of them to their usual cockpits, save Yumi, who was transferred to the main one.
"Hey, Ulrich, don't forget to attach a seatbelt over our little beacon," Odd quipped.
"Now's not the time for jokes, Odd," Ulrich tensely replied, still holding the tracer. He had the impression of holding a thermonuclear bomb in his hands. He had to stay calm.
"I'm undocking the Skid now," Aelita warned. "Supports away."
Said structures dimmed as they moved away. Yumi pressed the red ignition button before gently tilting back on the joysticks. Everyone was tense as she passed by the inactive supports and exited through the hole in the ceiling. She piloted the Skid out into the Forest Sector.
As she checked the status of the shields, Odd jokingly suggested, "How about a little loop-de-loop to diffuse the tension, Yumes?"
"ODD!" She, Ulrich, and William all denied his request.
"What? I'm kidding!"
Yumi promptly dove into the Digital Sea.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Laura finished filling out the last page of the test. She was frozen with fear as she gave it to Graven. The man took it and studied it immediately, and was quickly disappointed, more so than he was with Jérémie's results.
"I see you weren't studying like your father repeatedly told you to do."
"I have been, I swear!" It was a weak defense, but she had nothing else here. "There just haven't been many options..."
"There are no excuses," Graven coldly told her, making her shrink into herself. "You know what you were assigned to do, and when it came down to it, you let us down. But fortunately, your father is always working and has already succeeded where you have failed." He threw her test in the trash and began packing up. "Leave. I'm sure your father will have some words for you when I inform him of what happened here."
Laura was grateful to leave. She ignored Jim's concerns as she ran out of the office and the administrative building, and towards her dorm. Only when her door was closed and locked behind her did she let her tears fall. She leaned against her door and let her knees collapse, sending her to the ground.
Her father would never be satisfied. In his eyes, she would always be a disappointment. He really didn't care about her as a person. She was afraid of that, and now she had confirmation.
And now, he'd likely be pulling her out of school, away from the friends that she had made...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The Skid travelled through the network, exiting from the hub, and things continued to be tense as Yumi hit the brakes to stop the high speed acceleration. Now sailing directly towards the Cortex, the ship tiny in the immense and dark blue Digital Sea, the water suddenly changed color.
To red.
"What's going on?!" William exclaimed, glancing around. "Didn't you say that the red indicated XANA's presence on the network?"
"We did!" Yumi replied. "Aelita?"
"Two Mantas are approaching off the starboard bow!" was the response.
Sure enough, one nervous-looking Manta appeared from that direction. It rushed towards the Skid, soon followed by another.
"How did XANA manage to access the Digital Sea without the Keys?" William asked, as the Mantas got closer.
"It must have copied the same shield that protected our Ninja intruder from the effects of the Digital Sea," Aelita realized. "Yumi, you'll never be able to avoid them while I hack into the Cortex's password. I think it's time to head back."
"No, we're staying!" Odd cut in. "William and I will take care of it! Right, good buddy?"
William adjusted his grip on his controls, "Right. Let's go!", getting ready for his first fight with his Navskid.
"Good luck," Yumi told them, pulling down on the two miniature levers. "Navskids away." Odd and William's Navskids were promptly detached from the mainframe.
"It's time for Manta stew!" Odd said, he and William both rushing towards the Mantas.
"Don't try to work any miracles," Aelita warned, tense. "Just keep them away from the Skid until I crack the Cortex's security system."
"Gotcha, Princess!" Odd replied.
Yumi piloted the Skid towards the Cortex's gate. After switching it to vertical mode, she tapped on the interface, giving Aelita the access needed to hack into the security system.
"I'm connected," the pink-ette informed the geisha. "Stand by."
Behind, the two Navskids continued to occupy the Mantas. Odd swerved around, putting the one tailing him directly into William's view. "Now!"
A blue screen appeared in front of William. The interface followed his eyes as he focused on his target, before locking onto said enemy. "Okay, come and get me...now!" He hit the trigger, firing two torpedoes. They hit and destroyed its target, leaving one Manta left, which William swerved to avoid.
"Nice one, Will! You did it!" Odd exclaimed.
"Thanks! Now there's one left," William replied, before catching sight of where the second Manta was heading.
"Got it!" Aelita announced. The data stream stopped, and the gate began to open. "Everyone fall back in!"
A panicked William suddenly called out, "Yumi, Ulrich, watch out!"
The remaining Manta suddenly slammed into the back of the Skid. The force caused the ship to bang brutally against the gate of the Cortex, also making Ulrich's hands accidentally smack against a console.
Immediately, the Skid's lights dimmed and the ship cracked as if it were going to disappear, the two Navskids as well. Inside the Skid, the quartet's virtual envelopes also crackled.
Then the lights came back on, and Aelita's panicked voice was able to be heard, "Guys?! Guys, answer me! It happened again!"
"We're here, Aelita," Yumi managed through the fading pain. "Everything's fine. Odd, William, take out that Manta, pronto!"
The two Navskids rushed towards the last Manta, and Odd fired his torpedoes directly at its eye. Upon its destruction, the Sea turned back to blue. Odd and William returned to the Skid and reattached themselves, allowing Yumi to enter the floodgate.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
A few minutes after Miss Gauthier's disappointing test results, Charles Graven appeared in the park. A high-tech phone was in his hand, and he appeared to be tracking something.
He approached the bench, where his tracking device had indicated Belpois had stopped at. But the boy was nowhere in sight. Where he should have been was just the thing the man was tracking.
Only the pen.
He picked it up and turned it over and over as he processed what had happened. The boy had figured him out. Frustrated, Graven threw the pen to the ground, damaging it and the tracker within.
"Looking for me?"
The man turned around and found the boy he was looking for. Belpois appeared from behind a tree, wearing an impressive poker face, though his eyes were blazing with fury.
Graven smiled, "You're smarter than I gave you credit for."
Jérémie didn't answer, only raising an eyebrow.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Yumi suspended the Skid at the edge of the platform. After a close call with those Mantas, she was glad that they were still alive. "Now what?"
"Should we wait for a ground shift?" William asked.
"There won't be one for another two minutes at least," Odd said. "We can't wait."
"Odd's right," Aelita agreed. "We have to work fast. The longer we wait, the more likely it is that Graven will manage to trap Jérémie somehow. But I can't launch a Return to the Past until you guys are back from the Cortex and that tracer is destroyed."
"Then, let's go!" Ulrich said. "Send me. The rest of you stay here."
"Are you sure, Ulrich?"
"Yes! Let's get this over with!"
"Okay," Yumi replied, typing a command on the keypad. "Disembark Ulrich."
He teleported out of his cockpit and reappeared on the ground of the Cortex below. Just then, however, a familiar horn sounded, and Ulrich paled. That signaled the next shift.
A block promptly rose near him, and then another. Ulrich started running to avoid them, holding the beacon as best he could.
The others could only watch him.
"I'm devirtualizing the rest of you," Aelita said, already typing the necessary commands.
"And Ulrich?!" Odd asked, terrified for his friends.
"I'll take care of him," she reassured them. "You guys need to get to safety first."
"No! If Ulrich stays, we stay!" Yumi protested.
"Ulrich would never forgive me if I let you and something happened as a result! This is not up for debate!" Aelita reminded the geisha. "Materialization!"
Odd, William, and Yumi promptly disappeared from the virtual space, leaving Ulrich by himself. Aelita remotely took control of the Skid and put it just out of reach of any shockwave the beacon may emit upon bugging, but kept it on the Cortex so that Ulrich would have a way home.
"Ulrich, I can't devirtualize you while you're holding the beacon!" Aelita told him. "You have to put it down somewhere!"
"Impossible, Aelita!" Ulrich protested, in the midst of avoiding obstacles. "It would trigger immediately!"
Aelita thought for a quick minute. "I have an idea! Climb as high as you within fifteen seconds and throw it. By the time it falls back, you'll have already devirtualized by the supercomputer."
"Are you sure?"
"It's the best I've got."
Ulrich hesitated, before relenting, "Okay."
"Okay. I'm starting the countdown now."
"Initiating countdown," the system announced. "Fifteen... fourteen... thirteen... twelve... eleven..."
He then launched himself onto a block that rose, then another, and another, gaining height...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"You flunked the test on purpose, didn't you?" Graven sounded like he already knew the answer. He produced, on his phone, miniature holograms of the avatars of all six Lyokowarriors. He focused on the blue elf. "This one is you, isn't it?"
Jérémie said nothing. He was mentally berating himself for not realizing it before. The Cortex likely had facial recognition, including of himself. The Ninjas had gotten a good look at all of their faces, including his and Aelita's.
Graven continued, "Succeeding at purposefully flunking a test filled with all sorts of trick questions just proves that Tyron has every reason to be scared of you. He told me not to underestimate you, and he was right."
Continued silence came from Jérémie. It just told Graven that the man was right on the mark.
"He sees you as a Waldo 2.0." A pause. "My apologies. Do you know who that is?"
The boy finally spoke, "Yes. Waldo Schaeffer, also known as Franz Hopper, the creator of Lyoko, the weapon meant to destroy Project: Carthage. But you already knew that, didn't you? You gave me that pen—that tracker—in order to discover where its supercomputer was. Well, my sincerest apologies, Mr. Graven, but you won't be finding it today."
Graven's response was a frustrated sneer.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"Ten... nine... eight... seven..."
Ulrich jumped from block to block to get as high as he possibly could, both physically and countdown wise.
"Six... five... four..."
He took a risk and activated his Super Sprint—costing him thirty lifepoints—in order to reach the top of the column he was climbing.
"Three... two... one... zero. Initiating devirtualization."
At zero, Ulrich threw the beacon as high as he could into the sky. The device flew through the air before falling back down, as he began to devirtualize. The beacon fell and hit the ground hard, causing it to activate.
A shockwave emanated from it, and it hit the samurai just as he finished devirtualizing...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Odd, William, and Yumi worriedly kept their eyes on the scanner that just activated. Just as Yumi feared that something may have gone wrong, the doors opened, revealing her boyfriend.
An exhausted Ulrich stumbled out of the scanner and would have fallen flat on his face if his friends were not there to catch him.
"Ulrich!" Yumi cried out.
"I'm okay," he tiredly reassured her. "That's what I call perfect timing."
Relieved, William called out to their mission control, "Aelita, it's okay. Ulrich is with us."
Up in the lab, Aelita smiled, before bringing up the call program and typing in a familiar number.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The tension was interrupted by Jérémie's phone ringing. He picked up right away, "Yes, Aelita?"
"The tracer's been destroyed, and everyone's safe and sound," she told him, sounding relieved.
It was his turn to smile. He knew his friends wouldn't disappoint him. "Great job, all of you. Go ahead and launch the Return trip." He then hung up and mocked the man still in front of him by saying, "Farewell, Charles Graven. Have a nice trip down memory lane."
Graven looked to be a mixture of suspicious and confused, "What?"
On cue, a bright white light invaded the duo's space and engulfed the entire world.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Time rewinded to a couple hours earlier. Graven's black van pulled up and parked in front of the school gates of Kadic. The man stepped out, dressed in his formal best. He surveyed his surroundings as he took off his sunglasses. This time, however, he received a phone call before he could take a single step in any direction.
He picked up, "Hello? Yes, mm...mm... WHAT?! What do you mean the tracer bugged?! ... And what about the coordinates already recorded? Meaningless?!" He gave an exasperated sigh, "Okay, I'm coming back then. Yes... But tell Tyron to take better care of his gadgets next time! His work is supposed to be 'flawless', after all!"
Graven hung up, furious. He reopened his van door, climbed inside, closed the door, started the engine, and drove away—all without another word.
The six Lyokowarriors emerged from behind a pair of trees in the nearby park, having watched the entire thing.
Odd was practically dying of laughter, "Just imagine Tyron's face when he finds out the tracer is on the Cortex!"
"We won't be hearing from him that soon," Jérémie quipped back. His amused smile then fell into a disturbed frown. "I'm sorry. This happened because I wasn't careful enough. Graven already knew the truth the moment he laid eyes on me, because our avatars are recorded in Tyron's database."
"Because the Ninjas are virtualized human beings," Aelita muttered.
"Yeah..." her boyfriend confirmed.
"It's alright," William reassured him. "We're safe for now, right?"
"For now, yes," Jérémie confirmed.
"Is there a way to delete our avatars from Tyron's database?" Yumi asked. "Or at least hide them next time?"
Jérémie sighed, "It's not that simple, but I'll see what I can do."
"Sleep on it, Einstein," Odd stretched. "In the meantime, I'm in the mood for a soda and a game of foosball."
Ulrich's phone started ringing. He looked at the caller ID and immediately stiffened, "You guys go on ahead. I need to take this."
His friends' gazes collectively softened in sympathy. Aelita gently patted him on the shoulder, before she followed the others to the rec room.
But Yumi stayed.
"Yumi–" he began.
She cut him off. "I'm staying." Knowing there was no arguing with her when she was that serious, he let it go. He hated putting any of his friends in the hot seat that Yumi was willingly putting herself in right now, but part of him was glad that she had chosen not to run anyway.
He picked up, placing it on speaker phone, "Yes, Père?"
"I was made aware, Ulrich, that I may have underestimated the bond between you and your girlfriend, Yumi." The apology was half-assed and awkward, and Ulrich expected no less from his father. But this time Walter had said Yumi's name correctly. "Your mother talked me into letting you stay at Kadic. Apparently, she cares about your happiness more than your grades. She made a good argument about Yumi and your friends making you more self-assured."
Ulrich and Yumi blinked at each other in surprise. Barbara Stern finally grew a spine against her husband, who she always stood up for and whose orders she always took?
"Père," Ulrich finally spoke, "just because you've apologized doesn't mean it's all better."
"I am aware," Walter replied. "I will still be keeping an eye on your grades, but I will relent your future choices to you and you alone. If you wish to study ethnics, then...so be it. Miss Ishiyama, I know you're listening. I can hear your breathing."
Yumi nearly jumped out of her skin, "Um, yes, sir?"
"Take care of my son."
She blinked, "Yes, sir."
Walter then hung up, and the two lovebirds exchanged another glance, before embracing each other in a tight hug.
That was the best they would ever get from Walter Stern, and they both knew it. But now, he had agreed to lay off their relationship. He probably still didn't like Yumi, because he never indicated otherwise, only acknowledged that he had gone too far last week by threatening to pull his son from school because of it.
But that didn't bother Ulrich. His father was letting him stay with Yumi, and that's all that mattered to him.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
Inspiration: CLE's "An Assured Professional Future"/"A Bright Career Ahead"
Up next: Episode 19, Family Matters - "Ulrich helps Yumi get her parents back together. Meanwhile, a trip to the Cortex answers a question that's plagued the group since the start."
A/N: Chapter Meaning: Refers to Jérémie and Graven hiding their secrets from each other behind a mask. This chapter also shows that Laura is wearing a mask of her own.
-Graven is never given a first name in EVO. My beta reader gave me the idea for 'Charles'.
-I will reveal and explain what the deal with Laura is a few chapters from now. Just be patient.
-Kawindu from AO3 asked me about the Ninja from the previous chapter and if they were now immune to the RTTP because they entered Lyoko. The answer I gave them was as follows: "The Cortex does not have a RTTP function. The intruder Ninja would have some resistance, yes, but it's more like they think they just had a weird dream, because they weren't scanned from Lyoko's scanners, but from the Cortex's." For any of those wondering.
-Père is French for 'father'.
-Ulrich's mother is never named in canon. I named her Barbara after Ulrich's English voice actress, Barbara Weber-Scaff.
~Evolution concepts~
I didn't change much about the original EVO episode, in terms of themes and ideas, partly because it's one of my favorite EVO episodes. I did, however, have to change Laura's section because she's not part of the group in this story. EVO shows us that Jérémie is in fact still the smartest of the two, as he is able to purposefully flunk the test like he did in "Plagued", while Laura tries her best and fails. It's also a good character piece for Laura, as it shows that she's vulnerable to temptation. If you read the original script for the episode, it details that Graven is hitting her where it hurts: pleasing her father, who we know from "Chaos at Kadic" pushes her the same way that Mr. Stern pushes Ulrich. Unlike Ulrich, Laura hasn't learned not to care what her father thinks. Graven also hits Laura in another sore spot: "That you're the one they don't trust?", and he's right, because Aelita spies on Laura to ensure that she doesn't betray the group. Unfortunately, I had to change it because again, Laura's not part of the group (yet). Instead, the scene contains more hints as to what's really going on with her.
Graven is still suspicious of Jérémie here due to the fact that he's visited the Cortex in 102: Suspicions (Chapter 7). In EVO, Jérémie successfully fooled Graven because he's never once virtualized in the season.
In EVO, XANA still had access to the network. Here, it doesn't, so I wrote in XANA needing to also activate towers on the Cortex to access that supercomputer in order to set up this explanation. In this story, XANA also needs the Keys to access the Kongres, the Sharks, and the Kalamar. That's why it can only send the Mantas here.